NextWindow buy was motivated by IP dispute
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Lawsuit over patents sparked acquisition, Smart Technologies says
By Comptuerworld Staff | Auckland | Wednesday, 28 April, 2010 | 3 Comments
A factor not disclosed in Canadian touchscreen firm Smart Technologies’ media release this week announcing the acquisition of New Zealand counterpart NextWindow was that the buy was the culmination of a long-running legal dispute between the two firms about patents.
The announcement, made on April 25, makes reference to the fact that the buy “combines the two companies’ patent portfolios”, but doesn’t directly address the lawsuit, filed a year ago.
The details of the suit can be found at various websites, including at Business Standard.
Smart Technologies chief executive Nancy Knowlton told Canada’s Financial Post that the decision to acquire NextWindow arose from the patent dispute, but declined to comment further.
Comments
Anti-competitive for innovation...
Anonymous,
Actually, the statutory monopoly was seen as a big risk, and I think it's misleading to say it "was the whole point" of the patent system. It was seen as a necessary useful evil at the time, but the architects of the system recognised the anti-competitive nature as undesirable. It was meant to be reviewed over time...
The idea of patents was to provide an incentive to inventors (in a time when invention required substantial investment) to produce innovation for the public. The granting (it's NOT an entitlement) of a limited monopoly was seen as a risk at the time, but balanced by the overall benefit to society. The system has a) been distorted (much longer patent periods, for instance), and b) is not appropriate for software which, by comparison to physical goods which are subject to the laws of scarcity (software is not). Furthermore, very little software in NZ is patented anyway, and yet innovation has never been greater. Thus, there is no need for sw patents (others might argue the same for hw patents, but I'm not doing that here) - they have become more of an inhibitor (used by big, cash-rich corporates trying to protect and leverage monopolies rather than innovate) than an incentive for innovation.
Posted by Dave Lane at 13:05:54 on May 2, 2010
Actually, the statutory monopoly was seen as a big risk, and I think it's misleading to say it "was the whole point" of the patent system. It was seen as a necessary useful evil at the time, but the architects of the system recognised the anti-competitive nature as undesirable. It was meant to be reviewed over time...
The idea of patents was to provide an incentive to inventors (in a time when invention required substantial investment) to produce innovation for the public. The granting (it's NOT an entitlement) of a limited monopoly was seen as a risk at the time, but balanced by the overall benefit to society. The system has a) been distorted (much longer patent periods, for instance), and b) is not appropriate for software which, by comparison to physical goods which are subject to the laws of scarcity (software is not). Furthermore, very little software in NZ is patented anyway, and yet innovation has never been greater. Thus, there is no need for sw patents (others might argue the same for hw patents, but I'm not doing that here) - they have become more of an inhibitor (used by big, cash-rich corporates trying to protect and leverage monopolies rather than innovate) than an incentive for innovation.
Posted by Dave Lane at 13:05:54 on May 2, 2010
Whole point of patents is to be anti-competitive
Patents are a statutory monopoly to award disclosing of an invention so others may use it once the patent expires. So of course it is anti-competitive. That was the whole point when the system was created.
Posted by Anonymous at 4:16:10 on April 29, 2010
Posted by Anonymous at 4:16:10 on April 29, 2010
Patents As Anti-Competitive Measure
And so patents have contributed to a reduction in the number of players in this arena, which means less competition. So what else is new.
Posted by Lawrence D'Oliveiro at 18:59:10 on April 28, 2010
Posted by Lawrence D'Oliveiro at 18:59:10 on April 28, 2010
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